Organizational Aspects of Advertising

To get an advertisement that actually works, there must be a system of interaction among organizations and individuals. Although there are several groups that make a contribution to the advertising process, the process mainly revolves around the following five groups:

For this reason, this page is structured based on the five major players in the field of advertising, to understand who plays which role and what kind of contribution each group makes to how advertising works.
The diagram below shows the interaction among the five major players of advertising and also leads to a description of each player.

An advertiser initiates the advertising process by paying for the advertising produced under its name. From a large enterprise to an individual who places a classified ad in a local newspaper, advertisers spend their resources on obtaining certain objectives through advertising.
While there are several objectives that a number of different types of advertisers try to accomplish, all advertisers make the final decisions concerning marketing objectives, advertising objectives, advertising budget, media, and target audience.

Along with advertisers, advertising agencies play a role as 'message senders' in the process of communication.
In a position between the advertiser and the media, an advertising agency performs all or a limited number of advertising activities, such as creative and media decisions, account management, and supportive market research.
Although an advertiser hires and controls the advertising agency as a campaign progresses, the advertising agency autonomously executes its area of expertise as a partner rather than an employee.

Playing a role as a channel in the process of communication, mass media send advertising messages to massive and scattered audiences.
Due to the fact that the largest part of advertising expenditures is devoted to media placements or executions, an efficient media operation not only saves money but also focuses on the best prospects and thereby makes the advertising more effective and productive.

Although most major advertisers, advertising agencies, and media corporations include a research function as a part of their marketing efforts, research should be considered independently in the process of the advertising operation because this element takes charge of the flow of information that is required in every aspect of the process.
Without research, advertisers cannot figure out the attitudes of customers or the size of potential markets; advertising agencies cannot know the effectiveness of an ad campaign; and media cannot find out the current trend of audiences toward their own medium or any particular program.

Consumers are the most important players in the whole process of the advertising operation because the final results of any advertising campaign are totally derived from this group.
To achieve a successful result in an advertising operation, advertisers or advertising agencies should target a group of the most promising consumers based on their geographic, demographic, psychographic backgrounds and determine the most compelling message content and the most effective media channel to reach them.